


Start a Riot

by gingercanary



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, But like really heavy I warned u, Gen, Grief/Mourning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:15:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26374813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gingercanary/pseuds/gingercanary
Summary: What could've happened after Sara heard about Laurel's death. I may be completely wrong about the arrow timeline but whatever. Title comes from Start a Riot by BANNERS
Relationships: Jefferson "Jax" Jackson & Sara Lance, Laurel Lance & Sara Lance
Comments: 4
Kudos: 15





	Start a Riot

**Author's Note:**

> So this ain't my brand. Apart from the grief, that is. Thanks to puppetsoftomorrow for checking it out before i posted, u know i ain't an angst person.   
> Enjoy.   
> -Freckles

Sara stared blindly through the flame of a single candle. Curled up in the leather armchair in her sister’s old apartment, the wind threatened to snuff out the little light. She shouldn’t be here. Her father didn’t want her to be there. After Quentin told her, she ran far and fast. Past the buildings, the water, the places she used to know. 

The statue stopped her, slowed her down. She sank down onto her knees, clutching the pedestal. Laurel’s pedestal. She stared at the inscription. She brushed her fingers against the words, tracing them over and over until her fingertips became numb.  _ Dinah Laurel Lance, the black canary. _ The words ricocheted through her head and Sara pushed herself up on her knees, pressing her forehead against the cold stone of the pedestal. Flashes of memories, words, thoughts that weren’t even hers rushed through her. They could be dreams but Sara didn’t know, didn’t care. 

Raising her head up to the metal face that was Laurel, Sara recalled the last words Laurel had spoken to her.  _ Be a hero in the light. Be the white canary. _ Scraping her hands on the edges of the pedestal, Sara stood up and stared her sister in the eyes. “I can’t be a hero without you.” The strangers on the pier looked at her funny. She ran off.

After Laurel’s death, all the team cared about was apprehending Damian Darhk which meant that everything was as Laurel left it, just with a fine layer of dust. Picking the lock, even with her shaking bleeding hands, wasn’t hard. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Sara wondered if Laurel had ever been safe. If she had just left her sister to die. 

Wiping her blood off the lock, Sara slipped inside. Rubbing her eyes, she looked around the apartment. Law books lay left and right, pages scattered over the coffee table. Sara sniffed, ignoring the smell of stale, old coffee. She dropped herself into the old armchair, breathing in what was left. She closed her eyes.

The thing that eventually woke Sara up was a soft bulge against her lower back. She slid from her chair, turning her head from side to side cracking her spine. Turning around, she saw the culprit. The shark. The stuffed shark that Laurel always brought to her when she was sad, when she felt alone, or when she was scared. Its grey eyes stared back at her. 

“What do you want from me?” She asked; but it just kept staring. Sighing, she turned around. Dusk had long since passed and the apartment was dark. To avoid anyone noticing her presence, Sara didn’t turn the lights on. She found a few small tealights and set one on fire. The light flickered across the room, once again confronting Sara with the shark. It just sat there, taunting her. 

“I can’t help you.” Her fingers dug into the arm of the leather chair. “She’s gone,” she whispered. The pupils of the shark reflected orange light back at her. “She’s dead. She’s not coming back!” Her voice cracked. “She can’t come back for you!” 

In the back of her mind, she registered someone walking through the hallway. It didn’t matter. Nothing did. Laurel was gone, she was alone. Forever. No one but that stupid shark taunting her. 

Sara reached behind her and grabbed the box of matches from the table, lighting one. With her other hand, she picked up the shark. Sitting there, in front of the coffee table on the hardwood floor, she held the match under the shark and watched as the flame slowly grew. Noises were coming from outside the apartment door now. Someone was messing with the lock. Still, she sat watching the shark burn in her hand. When the flames reached her fingertips, Sara dropped it in the nearby paper bin. The door opened- someone was inside but Sara didn’t care. All she could do was watch the flames consume her stuffed animal, as death had taken Laurel. 

“Sara.” Jax stood near the door, unsure of what to do. Approaching her seemed too risky. She just sat there, still as a statue with her eyes glazed over. Light danced across her face, casting ghostly shadows in the dark. Jax walked toward Sara, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Sara.”

“What.” Her voice was flat. 

He didn’t know what to say. The muscles in Sara’s shoulder felt like steel wires pulled tight. Lowering himself onto the floor next to her, he attempted to get into her line of sight. “Why did you burn that?” He finally asked. 

Sara blinked. “It can’t help me anymore.” Before Jax could stop her, she got up. Grabbing every loose piece of paper in the room, Sara fed her fire, feeding the flame. Holding onto her anger. She kept going, running around the room adding things, grabbing books until Jax grabbed hold of her. 

He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her away from the fire as she struggled against his grip. “Stop it, it won’t help,” he said. 

“I know that! Nothing will! So I might as well burn everything.”

“Sara, sit.” He put her down on the couch.

Sara sat. She pulled her feet up on the couch and wrapped her arms around her legs. With a sigh, she rested her forehead against her knees. “Jax, what are you doing here?”

“I came looking for you.” He started looking for the fire extinguisher.

“Why?”

“Because I was worried.” He glanced at her as he pulled the pin and aimed the extinguisher at the bin. The fire fizzled out. 

“Laurel’s gone.” The words felt wrong. Wrong in her throat, coming from her vocal cords. 

Jax put down the extinguisher and moved to the couch. “I heard. I’m sorry, Sara.” 

Sara kept staring blindly into the small tealight. “You came here to tell me that you’re sorry.”

“I came here to keep you from doing something you’ll regret. Like, set Laurel’s apartment on fire.”

“Why does it matter? She’s not going to need it anymore.” She gestured around to the various trinkets in the room.

Jax rubbed his forehead. “But it still has value to the people who love her. To you.” 

Sara clutched at the chain around her neck. “I… I killed the shark.” Her voice jumped an octave. “I killed our shark.” She jumped from the couch and ran toward the bin of charcoal remains. Falling onto her knees, she dug through the scraps of paper until she found what was left of the shark. The eye that hadn’t been burnt off looked at her.

Jax followed Sara to the bin, sinking down beside her and wrapping an arm around her. 

“I killed our shark,” she repeated in a hollow voice. Clutching what was left of it to her chest, Sara finally took a deep breath. She pushed her feet to the side, leaning against Jax, and she let out the sob that had been building in her chest. 

Holding Sara in his arms, Jax gently rubbed her back. He hadn’t thought about what he would do to help Sara once he found her, all he had considered was that he had to find her. That he couldn’t leave her alone in the dark or the darkness would consume her. Not again. He knew that Sara would do anything for her sister, but Jax couldn’t let Sara lose her soul again. So he just sat there, holding her, as the night went on.

  
  
  



End file.
